Page:Insects - Their Ways and Means of Living.djvu/337

 CATERPILLAR AND THE MOTH

many had given up and had gone back to the tent, but the rest continued the hopeless search. At seven-thirty a few bold explorers had discovered some remnants ol  water sprouts at the base of the tree and fed there till ten o'clock. At eleven all were back in the tent. At two o'clock in the afternoon the crowd was out again and a mass meeting was being held at the base of the tree. But nobody seemed to have .any idea ofwhat to do, and no leader rose to the occasion. A few cautious scouts were making investigations over the ground to the extent of a foot or a little more from the base of the trunk, but, though there were small apple trees on three sides rive feet away, only one small caterpillar ventured off toward one of these. He, however, missed the mark by twelve inches and continued onward; but probably chance eventually rewarded him. At three p.m. the meeting broke up, and the members went home. They were not seen again that evening or the next morning. During this day, the "_ISt, and the next, an occasional caterpillar came out of the tent but soon returned, and it was not till the evening of the 22nd that a large number appeared. These once more explored the naked branches and traveled up and down the new paths on the trunk, but none was observed to leave the tree. On the -3rd and 24th no caterpillars were seen. On the 2çth the tent was opened and only two small individuals were round wlthin it. Each of th'ese was weak and flabby, its alimentary canal completely empty. But what had become of the rest? Probably they had wandered off unobserved one by one. Certé, inlv there had been no organized migra- tion. Solitary caterpillars were subsequently found on a dozen or more small apple trees in the immediate vicinity. It is likely that most of these had molted and had gone into the lst stage, since their time was ripe, but this was not determined. After the caterpillars go over into their last stage, the tents are neglected and rapidly fall into a state of dilapida-

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